Soldier Field Fiasco: Mudslinging's Just Begun

During the second half of the Bears' victory Sunday, defensive tackle Chris Zorich chased New Orleans Saints quarterback Jim Everett across the field and dragged him to the ground just as Everett released an incomplete pass.

The third-year Bears player stood triumphantly to acknowledge the roar of nearly 64,000 fans in Soldier Field.

The only problem was he couldn't see a thing. His view was obstructed by a glob of mud lodged in his face mask.

"It must have taken me an hour to clean the sand and mud off in the shower after the game," Zorich said.

Trace Armstrong, a Bears defensive end and their player representative, put it bluntly: "I have never ever seen or played on a field this bad in my life."

Quite simply, the sorry state of the sod at Soldier Field has become a national turf-maintenance embarrassment-one that on Monday escalated into a war of words between the Bears and the Chicago Park District, which manages Soldier Field.

Following Sunday's dirty debacle, the Park District again plans to resod the center of the playing field-the fourth time a major section of Soldier Field turf will have been replaced in five months. Previous projects already have run up a price tag of more than a quarter-million dollars.

And, according to some sod experts, the Park District and the Bears may be forced to endure further turf trauma.

"They have to be willing to keep laying sod down after every disaster," said Henry Wilkinson, professor of turf science at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. "That could mean replacing it after every game for the rest of the season."

For months now, the Bears and the Park District have been locked in a quagmire over the turf, which has been worn down by a heavier-than-normal schedule of sporting events and rock concerts.

Ultimately, though, amid all of the renewed fingerpointing on Monday, one major question still remained: Why does this keep happening?

The answers, at least in part: a park district intent on scheduling more events to return the stadium to profitability, a sport that is by its nature tough on grass and bad breaks from Mother Nature. They all have conspired to keep the natural grass from taking firm root in the Soldier Field soil.

The Bears firmly place the guilt for the latest fiasco on the Park District, saying it breached the Bears' Soldier Field lease by scheduling the Chicago Classic college football game the night before Sunday's Bears game.

"They very clearly violated the contract," said Bears President Mike McCaskey, who added that the Bears may consider legal action against the Park District. "The contract says very plainly no other event can be scheduled 24 hours before a Bears game."

Saturday's game, a matchup between Jackson State and Alabama State to raise money for predominantly black colleges, was played in a heavy downpour and took most of the blame for causing Sunday's abysmal field conditions.

The Bears made a similar complaint in early September, when two college games in a four-day period before the matchup between Chicago and Tampa Bay led to an earlier resodding.

Add to those games concerts by the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones, and the turf simply stood no chance, says NFL turf expert George Toma, who masterminded the stadium's first resodding this year before the World Cup soccer matches.

"Whenever you go and have rock concerts, that'll take its toll on the field," said Toma, who said in May that the new turf should last from 5 to 10 years. "I didn't realize they were going to have all these concerts."

McCaskey said his first concern on Sunday, however, was not the embarrassing appearance of the turf, but the safety of the players who were slogging through the mud and sand.

"I think that our players and whoever the visiting team is ought to be able to play relatively safe," he said.

But Park District officials were quick to shoot back Monday, saying they've done everything possible to keep the field in playing shape and denying numerous player complaints that it was unsafe.

"Yesterday the field was dry, playable and very level," said Bridget Reidy, director of lakefront services for the Park District. "It looked ugly, but it was in playable condition."

The three previous resodding jobs have cost more than $250,000, a tab picked up mainly by promoters of the events that have torn up the turf.

A new resodding will cost another $20,000 to $30,000, Reidy said. That project, which the Park District says will be paid for by the promoters of the Chicago Classic, should begin later this week.

Reidy added that the Bears have little latitude to grouse about their contract.

"We went to the Bears, and they didn't stop the Chicago Classic game," she said. "They have the legal right to do so, but they didn't."

Even Mayor Richard Daley joined in on the great grass debate during a Monday morning appearance on the city's North Side: "It rained. I mean, you want to talk to God and explain to him it shouldn't rain? Give me a break."

Joe Vargas, a professor of botany and plant pathology at Michigan State University in East Lansing, is among those who think that the remainder of the Bears' season could be less than ideal.

Because it's already early October, any new turf laid down at Soldier Field will stand little chance of establishing firm roots by the Bears' next home game, against Green Bay on Monday night, Oct. 31.

"It will keep tearing up," Vargas said. "I suspect they'll keep having this problem. The field will be in playing shape for maybe the first half of the next game or until they get more rain.